Planning for your Houston NCECA Adventure!

Greetings from Houston! As the 2013 conference in Houston, Texas draws nearer we would like to share more insider tips to help you plan your visit in March. In addition to the conference programming and exhibitions you may want to leave a little time in your itinerary to check out a few local attractions. Everyone knows Texans do things a little differently. Well, our cultural attractions attest to our ingenuity and originality and Houston is known for a number of outsider art destinations and fascinating cultural arts attractions. While there are too many to list, here are a few of Houston’s unique cultural gems:

Jeff McKissack, a mail carrier in Houston, constructed The Orange Show Monument in honor of his favorite fruit. Built from 1956 to 1980, the monument transformed his home into an architectural maze of walkways, balconies, arenas and exhibits decorated with mosaics and brightly painted iron figures. www.orangeshow.org

Project Row Houses (PRH) is a neighborhood-based nonprofit art and cultural organization in Houston’s Northern Third Ward, one of the city’s oldest African-American communities. Twenty-two shotgun-style houses became the perfect opportunity to pursue the creation of a new form of art. Ten of the twenty-two row houses dedicated to art, photography and literary projects, feature installations on a rotating six-month basis. Each commissioned artist is given a house to transform in ways that speak to the history and cultural issues relevant to the African-American community. http://projectrowhouses.org/

The Beer Can House began its transformation into its current state in 1968 when John Milkovisch, a retired upholsterer for the Southern Pacific Railroad, began inlaying thousands of marbles, rocks, and metal pieces into concrete and redwood to form unique landscaping features. When the entire front and back yard were completely covered because he “got sick of mowing the grass”, he turned to the house itself and began adding aluminum siding – aluminum beer can siding, that is. http://www.beercanhouse.org/

The Art Car Museum is a private institution dedicated to contemporary art with an emphasis on art cars, other fine arts, and artists who are rarely, if ever, acknowledged by other cultural institutions. The museum, or “Garage Mahal,” as many people know it, features the most imaginative, elaborate, and artfully constructed art cars, low riders, and mobile contraptions, as well as art exhibitions by local, regional, and national artists. http://www.artcarmuseum.com/

Looking forward to seeing you all in Houston. As you plan your visit remember to come early and stay late!

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Thanks for the update and images! The Houston art scene is high, low, visionary, insider, outsider, international, and community engaged… a unique and diverse cultural eco-system into which NCECA is so fortunate to become immersed.